The Pagan moralist is Marcus Aurelius, a leading second century Roman philosopher. Aurelius is one of the champions of Stoicism, a school of thought that encourages people to accept the blows, challenges and joys of life evenhandedly. The quotation comes from his most famous surviving work, Meditations.

Or Jesus Christ, as he is more commonly known. Jesus was a religious teacher in first century Israel. Christians believe that he was the Son of God and that he rose from the dead when the Romans crucified him for stirring up unease among the Jews.

Hardy calls him the Nazarene here because he grew up in Nazareth and is sometimes referred to as Jesus of Nazareth.

Page 233.
" how neatly you used to turn 'Twas down in Cupid's Gardens' "

Many such folk songs died out with the move to the towns and cities, away from the traditional ways of life that gave rise to the songs. However, some still survive and are still performed around the world.

Now a bustling metropolis with a population of over 3.2 million, Curitiba would have been a pretty isolated place in Angel Clare's day. European settlers had been coming to the region in larger numbers since the 1850s, when the area's main economy was based on cattle trading.

One of the key figures in the Old Testament, King Solomon was known for his wisdom. People would come from miles around to hear his verdicts on their personal and legal dilemmas.

Among his most famous judgements was the case of two women who both claimed to be the mother of a certain baby. Solomon ordered the baby be cut in two and each of the women be given half, judging rightly that the real mother would insist that the baby be given to the other woman to save its life. When this happened, he was able to return the baby to the real mother.

Page 242.
" like the inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula, they ran amok "

'Amok' is a Malay word meaning to run out of control. In English, particularly in Hardy's day, it described people seizing weapons and attacking others indiscriminately while in the grip of a strong emotion. No one is quite sure why the word should have come into existence in Malaysia, but W. W. Skeat's entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica gives a hint:

A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapons, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed. These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity. It is now, however, certain that the typical amok is the result of circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which render a Malay desperate and weary of his life. It is, in fact, the Malay equivalent of suicide. The act of running amuck is probably due to causes over which the culprit has some amount of control, as the custom has now died out in the British possessions in the peninsula, the offenders probably objecting to being caught and tried in cold blood.